Landscaping by Gustav

Last year, I took this picture of the little path from our new house through the woods. Gustav thought we needed a little challenge.

Here's the same path, only with the new "pond and bridge" look. The pond is all the water from the torrential rains. The bridge obstructing the path is an enormous uprooted oak. When things dry up, I'll have to walk the path with my camera. Morgan looked out from the back patio and said, "What happened to the woods?" Gustav happened, Baby.

Gustav also decided our neighbor needed a new fence. He did the "deconstruction" for her. This picture was taken during the storm.

The "landscaping" in our backyard.

Thankfully, no branches or trees hit our roof. The damage is relatively minor. Just lots of stuff to pick up. Some of it will require a chainsaw to cut into manageable pieces.

A Week of Firsts

First hurricane of 2008 to make landfall in Louisiana. First night in the new house. First power outage while in the new house. First time cooking by candlelight. First dinner guests. First overnight guests.





Sorry about the cold baths, First Guests. And the lack of air conditioning. And the lack of furniture. Oh - I see you brought your own spot for lounging!


:::giggle::: For having such weird circumstances, I must say this was a pretty fun week, all in all. I'm glad my sister-in-law and her husband live just two doors down. We enjoyed lots of yummy food (thanks to stuff thawing, but also thanks to a gas stove to cook it on). We enjoyed watching The Sound of Music on a battery-powered DVD player. We enjoyed watching the cats and poodles being silly. We enjoyed working on a puzzle in the daytime (puzzles by candlelight can make you feel a bit blind). We enjoyed a few nice, cool nights thanks to the gift of a loaned generator and window a/c unit from my dearest of friends who drove an hour to bring it to us (along with two cases of bottled water and 20 gallons of precious gasoline for the generator).

Even in the midst of a disaster, we are so very blessed.

Cousin It

Meet my new friend......

...Cousin It.

Nah! It's just Brooke with dark hair!

We miss you, Beautiful Girl.

Where in the World is Brooke?

She's definitely not at home. She missed all the "fun" of Hurricane Gustav. She missed spending the first nights in the new house. She missed the week without electricity in hot and sticky South Louisiana. What a shame.


But where is she?



Right now she is at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois. She and her grandmother are visiting with relatives and they took today to do some sightseeing.





On their way, they stopped to eat at Lambert's, Home of the Throwed Rolls.

Brooke made a new friend, Marley. He belongs to Aunt Louise and Aunt Georgia Lee. Marley decided Brooke hung the moon and I am told he follows her everywhere. That's my girl - the Animal Whisperer. She also got to do some volunteer work at a local no-kill animal shelter.

And Nana did what Nana does best - cook! I know the aunts enjoyed that! Some yummy Cajun cooking up in Illinois!

But you guys were really wanting to be down here in Louisiana. Enjoying the steaming weather. Without benefit of air conditioning and lights. Yeah. I know. You guys are jealous. Terribly, terribly jealous. What, with all that nice fall weather and everything. Umm hmm.....

Candlelight Dinner, Anyone?

Eating by candlelight is generally quite romantic. Unless you are also COOKING by candlelight! That makes it much more difficult. And not quite romantic. Especially with Steve stuck at the hospital. At least HE has power.

But, thanks to my gas stovetop, we ate well. My sister-in-law and her husband stayed with us after the hurricane. I was SO glad my sister-in-law made pre-hurricane brownies. I think this should be a staple for hurricane preparedness. We used it as a base for the ice cream that was melting in the freezer!

Raining Cats and Dogs

Gustav hit South Louisiana with a vengeance today. It came ashore at Cocodrie just one mph below a Category 3 storm. The eye passed between Lafayette and Baton Rouge, putting the Baton Rouge area on the "dirty side" of the storm. And, boy, was it dirty. One million people without power, trees down everywhere, and the storm spawned many tornadoes.

We had minimal shingle loss to our new home and our poor chimney cap was battered and will need to be replaced. But we had no loss of loved ones and no family or friends with trees in their homes, so we are very fortunate.

Our electricity went out at about 11 a.m. and remains off. There are numerous trees on power lines on our street and three blown transformers, so who knows when it'll come back on. Steve will stay at the hospital - the roads are too dangerous to even attempt to pick him up, not that the hospital would let him go home. But they have power and a/c, so he'll be more comfortable there than here.

Here's what the dogs were doing during the storm:

They would go from one window to the other, watching the wild wind and rains.

Kallie took a more casual approach to the storm.

And this brave little cicada decided to watch from my back patio step.

He stayed there during the whole day, barely moving. Once things calmed down, he bid us adieu.